Meditation is a refuge from the business of our livesIllustration by Lisha Zhong for Varsity

Meditation has been practised for thousands of years around the world, with many modern forms of meditation rooted in Buddhism or Hinduism (though other religions have also adopted meditation in different forms). Studies show that regular meditation reduces, among other things, stress, anxiety and increases perceived wellbeing. Meditation can seem very alien at first for anyone who has never tried the practice before, but there are many different types and it is about finding the type of meditation that is right for you. There are different Buddhist forms of meditation, as well as Yoga meditation in Hinduism, Judeo-Christian meditation, chanting (mantra) meditation and more modern meditations. These practices all differ slightly but all allow us to develop greater awareness of ourselves and allow for emotional calm and clear thinking.

The go-to position people usually imagine when they think of meditation is the lotus pose or semi lotus (with legs crossed and one or both feet positioned on top of the leg). You can sit like this if you wish but for a lot of people it is not comfortable; instead you can sit cross legged, in a chair, lying down whatever is most comfortable for you. Often with meditation we focus on one thing, either something external from the body, for example a candle flame or something within the body, such as the breath. This helps our minds to focus, as I talked about in breathing last week, on the present moment and the exercise. For example, with a breathing meditation, we can bring our awareness to our breath and notice where we feel the breath, and bring our awareness to this moment, to the here and now. We can also visualise the breath entering and travelling down into our core and being released again.

There is no right or wrong way to meditate

An important part of mediation is letting go of judgement and allowing thoughts to arise and pass if they occur. It is normal to have thoughts appear in our heads as we meditate (often about tasks we have to do, deadlines or what we should be doing in this time), but we must be gentle and patient with ourselves. Acceptance is key to meditation and allowing any thoughts that occur to arise and pass without judging ourselves for becoming distracted, we can observe our thoughts and then return our focus back to our breathing or mantra. Meditation is about letting go of control, of accepting this present moment and though we focus to bring awareness and calm the mind we are kind to ourselves if we lose that awareness momentarily. Everyone is on their own path and it takes time to find a meditation that works for you and begins to bring you peace. Particularly in loving kindness meditations, where the purpose is to imagine sending loving kindness and compassion to yourself and others, it is emphasised to just allow thoughts to appear and if they do to acknowledge that and let them pass we are gentle with ourselves.

You can meditate in silence, along to meditative music, or there are guided meditations that take you slowly through the process. (There are various apps that provide guided meditations but some are much more beneficial than others so it was worth looking around for the right one for you.) Walking meditation is also a form of meditation that focuses on bringing awareness to very step to become aware and connected to the earth, aware of each step, our attention being on our next step, our next connection with the earth. When we walk it is one of the times we are probably most in our thoughts and thinking about tasks to do or where we are having to go to walking meditation is a way of bringing us into the present and letting go or our thoughts.

There is no right or wrong way to meditate and no set time you should meditate for. Often it is best to start with a short amount of time and work upwards. It can sometimes feel, particularly at Cambridge, that we do not have enough time or that we can be using our time for something more useful but allowing ourselves to stop, meditate and focus our awareness into the here and now benefits us for the rest of the day and is one of the most useful things we can do. Meditation (in whatever form) is a refuge away from the business of our lives, the business of our thoughts it is time that is completely for you to be able to discover who you are beneath the noise, when you allow yourself to just be.

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Meditate, and help bring calm to yourself - Varsity Online

BY SWAMI KRIYANANDA

Meditation is any practice of which the goal is superconsciousness. Its the process of retraining our awareness to operate not from the conscious or subconscious level, but from the superconscious.

The essential attitude for correct meditation is one of listening. The mind must be kept receptive, because we cant think our way into deep meditation. Nor, indeed, can you think your way to true guidance and inspiration. You can only receive wisdom: you cannot concoct it.

A truth must be perceived in that calm awareness that is superconsciousness. Meditation, then, is not creating answers: it is perceiving, or receiving them. And this is the secret of true guidance.

To understand what meditation is we must learn to listen to what is, and not keep insisting on what we think it ought to be. We must try to tune in to things as they are. Meditation is the opposite of imposing your will on the world. Try to relinquish, even for just a few minutes, the process of concocting plans and projects for the future. Be more, not less, conscious, however.

Meditation is a state of intense awareness achieved by stilling and concentrating the thought.

Its a journey to the centre of our being, a process so perfectly natural that we dont have to learn how to meditate. Rather, we have to unlearn those habits and attitudes that keep us from experiencing our natural state of expanded awareness. Deeper states of meditation come automatically as we peel away the layers of tension and attachments that prevent us from being more aware.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Meditation is awareness - Economic Times

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) Meditation in schools has grown increasingly popular in cities across the country.

Now, this national trend may be coming to a classroom in the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS).

Julia Corin, a student at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), came up with the proposal to bring mindfulness activities into SCCPSS schools.

Knowing the impact mindfulness made on her, Corin says she felt it was important to bring spread how useful mindfulness techniques are.

Elementary schools in Baltimore, Chicago and San Francisco are just some of the districts that have already implemented mandatory meditation classes for students.

After seeing their successes, Corin says she knew she had to propose the idea to the school district a few weeks ago.

SCCPSS says Corin met with Dr. Quentina Miller-Fields, Director of Student Affairs, and agreed that the district will be implementing mindfulness for elementary students starting at the Success Center.

Theyre open and theyre looking for positive solutions to bring into primary education in Savannah, says Corin.

According to Corin, mindfulness practices include breathing techniques, yoga poses and meditation. She says bringing these into the classroom has shown to enhances emotional intelligence, lessen violence, improve test scores.

Its really important to start putting mindfulness into younger students so that they have the skills at an early age to deal with all the things theyre going to have to deal with, says Corin.

Corin says the plans are still in the very early stages of development, but she has a rough idea of what is needed for the program to be implemented.

The first thing you need to do is to train the teachers how to be mindful, says Corin. The second step in the process is to teach the teachers how to facilitate mindfulness or meditation or a guided meditation session. And the third step is to then teach the children.

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Only On 3: Bringing meditation and mindfulness into the classroom - WSAV-TV

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Her newborn was sleeping, but Sarah Lynch wasnt tackling household chores, or having a shower, or even napping herself any of which would have been preferable to what she was doing, which was mindlessly scrolling on her phone. I realized it was making me feel bad about myself, anxious and more tired than I needed to be, she says. I understand, because Ive been to therapy, the kind of person that I am I can get caught up in negative thinking or feeling anxious. And I didnt need any more of that stress in my life.

What she did need was meditation, as it turns out. She downloaded an app, committed to a years subscription and started doing guided meditations when her son went down for his morning nap. And she saw the benefits immediately. After about 10 minutes, its over and I feel better. It doesnt even take that long but Ive taken that moment for myself, Ive actually paid attention to my breath.

Lynchs meditation practice is just one example of mindfulness, which is anytime we are purposefully paying attention, says Stephanie Kersta MSc, RP, a psychotherapist and the co-owner of Hoame, a meditation studio in Toronto. According to Kersta, you can eat mindfully by paying attention to the sight, smell, texture and taste of your food. You can drink coffee mindfully. You can even walk mindfully. And there are real benefits, including decreased anxiety, decreased depression, improved sleep, increased energy, increased productivity, increased focus, increased immunity, decreased pain response and [an] overall happier mood, she says.

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This is especially true for new moms, who may feel isolated from their partners, family and friends while on maternity leave, which can make anxiety and other negative emotions worse. Kersta points to a 2017 study published in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, which found mindfulness practices during the postpartum period may contribute to a mothers psychological wellbeing. And, a 2016 study in Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology found pregnant women with a history of depression who tried mindfulness-based cognitive therapy reported significantly lower rates of depressive episodes and when they did have those episodes, they were not as severe.

And Lynch is right it really doesnt take much. If you can swing it, it can be easier to get into a meditative state at a class outside of your home. But apps are great options, too. Try Calm, Headspace, or we really love Insight Timer as it is a free option, which is helpful with reduced mat leave pay! Kersta says. We also really encourage to start small: three minutes per day, and build on that.

You can also add mindfulness into other parts of your day, whether thats while youre drinking your morning sup of coffee, as you take your baby for a walk or while youre having a shower. And, she says, its important to breathe deeply. Stress can cause us to take shallow breaths, which signals to our brain that theres an impending threat.

Your brain kind of scrambles after you have a baby, Lynch says. But programming mindfulness into my world is a positive thing for me. Its giving myself permission to be kinder to myself. I know, on one level of my brain, to take care of myself first is to take better care of my son.

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Why new moms should carve out time for mindfulness and meditation - The Globe and Mail

(Facebook Photo/Shannon Woodruff)

PHOENIX Approximately 40 million American adults roughly 18% of the population have an anxiety disorder, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

People are focusing on their mental health more than ever and small, mindful practices can do wonders for overall well-being.

Mindfulness is being aware of what your mind is doing and kind of keeping it in check, Shannon Woodruff, modern mindfulness advocate and certified meditation instructor, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Friday.

Woodruff owns and operates a local business, ManifesTEEN, that offers meditation workshops for both adults and teens who want to improve their mindfulness.

Even the act of just meditating is mindful because youre saying, I am the one in control here. Woodruff said.

Sitting and knowing you are sitting and slowing down a racing mind can help calm you down. In return, it can impact your overall mental health.

It helps with things like anxiety, insomnia, and mental health in general just feelings of well-being and positivity and just being aware that you are not your thoughts, Woodruff said.

How can you start practicing mindful thinking?

Witnessing your breath, and once you start witnessing your breath, you are witnessing an internal motion you dont have control over, Woodruff said.

Woodruff added guided meditations can get adults to use their imaginations in a positive productive way. You can find free tutorials on her Facebook or Instagram or at ManifesTEEN.

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Mindful thinking, meditation can help with anxiety, depression - KTAR.com

As the sun set on Friday night, a group of certified wellness coaches held a guided meditation session on the UC lawn. Dinesh Kashikar, also known as Kashi, found meditation beneficial during college and now travels to campuses to help other stress-filled students.

The event did not include yoga mats, calm music or candles. Kashi and his comrades simply sat with students to focus on their breath and mind, and he mentioned the need to demystify meditation.

People think my mind is too crazy to meditate but once you follow the algorithm its easy, Kashi said. Meditation is for everyone, our goal is for people to learn they can do it with no intervention.

During Fridays event, Kashi informed students of how the mind handles stress. He said that people try to stop focusing on a stressful thought, but the more they push their mind to stop thinking about it, the stronger the thought become. Meditation can bring relief to this problem.

He also said that the basis of what people do begins with their state of mind. Meditation is a way to take more control of that state of mind, and is the best way to work with ones self.

When we have the key to the car (our mind) driving it is easy, Kashi said. Thoughts like clouds come and go, and the key to meditation is to be in thoughts.

Kashi has been meditating for more than 25 years and has guided meditation sessions for more than six years. He knew meditation was an important tool to share when he saw his need for sleep shrink two hours by adding only 20 minutes of daily meditation.

Kashis project is called The Art of Living and has benefited over 370 million people through SkyCamps, their system of bringing meditation resources and education to college students. The benefit of meditation is apparent through the stories of these students, including one instance where Kashi saved a life.

About 5 or 6 years ago two students came to me after a program and thanked me for saving their life, Kashi said. They were going through a traumatic break-up, but they got back together because of meditation.

Seated across from Kashi on Friday was his partner, Deepika Konakanchi. Konakanchi, a University of Memphis graduate, also discovered meditation during college and sees the practice as immensely valuable.

Konakanchi is part of The International Association of Human Values, and obtained a Ph.D at Memphis while raising young children. She credits meditation for her ability to stay focused despite her many responsibilities.

It was possible because of meditation, I made it without being stressed out, Konakanchi said. Theres a bigger high in meditation than any other recreational means.

About 38% of college students use marijuana during school, according to a 2018 study by The University of Michigan. Contrary to medicating, a 2016 study by Biological Psychiatry showed that mindful meditation can change the brain and lower the risks of inflammatory disease.

Konakanchi said there is always a need to relax and keep the mind calm. Like Kashi, Konakanchi remembered a moment where meditation changed someones life.

Seven years ago I guided 100 students doing meditation for the first time, Konakanchi said. I received an email six years later from an attendee who still remembered and valued the 6-minute practice.

The Art of Living has been in service for 37 years and has 3,000 centers worldwide. The group is open to starting a SkyCamp at the UofM via their website, artofliving.org.

One UofM student felt an impact from Fridays meditation session. Sophomore marketing major, Saran Panchakunathorn, grew up in the Buddhist country of Thailand, where meditation was common.

Since I was a child my parents would take us to the temple and monks would meditate, Panchakunathorn said. I just know the basics, but you get positive vibes and drop everything youre thinking, definitely worth trying.

Panchakunathorn also said that when he couldnt sleep or was struggling, he would meditate. He said that meditation could help recover both your mind and body, and that Fridays session was beneficial.

Skepticism around meditation still exists, but it is a healthy substance-free approach to handling stress. Free resources are available on YouTube and anybody can meditate according to Kashi.

Its a profound experience. Our vision is to bring more smiles and happiness to more people, Konakanchi said.

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Meditation group held outside UC to share practice with students - Daily Helmsman

Hundreds of students sang and meditated Tuesday evening during an on-campus celebration of Diwali, an annual four to five dayHindu festival of lights.

We want to be able to live a true life and be true to what we really are, event organier Hemali Patel said. We want to have integrity and stick to our values. We want to have simplicity because things in our society are getting more and more complicated, so its important to be simple and true to our core values.

During the event, students attended five information booths representing each of the five days of Diwali before participating in devotional songs and a question and answer segment. The devotional songs throughout the celebration called upon the presence of God and promoted practicing mindfulnessand meditation.

The whole program is centered around truth, simplicity and integrity, so were gonna be pushing how we can live a life with those three values, said Meet Patel, who acted as Master of Ceremonies for the event.

The event was hosted by Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha in the William C. Powers, Jr. Student Activity Center Ballroom. BAPS has organizations and universities all over the country and hosts Campus Diwali annually in several cities, including Houston and Los Angeles, Hemali Patel said.

Several years ago, economics senior Meet Patel and event organizer Manav Patel decided to help BAPS put on Diwali after the group was inactive for years. Manav Patel said they had a group of people willing to be involved but had not taken advantage of that yet.

The focus of this event is not aimed towards Hinduism its aimed towards everyone and how to incorporate the basic values of all religions, said Manav Patel, a government and philosophy senior. Were teaching people its okay that there are some failures in your life. The messages were trying to teach are universal. Were not trying to doDiwali just for Hindus.

Psychology sophomore Hemali Patel said that the turnout had been much smaller in past years. She said they were surprised at how organized and well-attended the event was.

Communications and leadership freshman Natasha Sagar, who was at the event Tuesday, said she appreciates that the event includes all studentsregardless of their religion.

Its really cool that its a cultural event as opposed to just a religious event, Sagar said.

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Hundreds of students begin on-campus Diwali celebration with songs, meditation - UT The Daily Texan

In a world seemingly dominated by bad news, we all need a little escapism now and then. Yes, the video game space in general is good at immersing us in their digital worlds, but trying to save the world, again, can be a taxing business. It's refreshing, then, to see a game take a different tack, offering a way to put your real-world blinkers on in a manner that's deliberately crafted to calm you to your very soul. And that's exactly why we all need Lifelike in our lives right now. Go on, turn away from Twitter for 10 minutes.

Don't be fooled by its title either. Thankfully, Lifelike is anything but a reflection of our present reality, instead presenting a journey of discovering, gathering and learning about different particle groups, with the ultimate aim of reaching a level goal. Like thatgamecompany's Flower, though, playing Lifelike is less about the destination than the Journey. Created by developer Kunabi Brother, it's described as a particle symphony, and as silly as that might sound, it's probably the perfect way to explain it.

(Image credit: Kunabi Brothers)

Inspired by the meditation concept of 'undivided attention', or 'focused attention', Lifelike encourages you to get lost in the gameplay through an immersive spectacle of sight and sound. A low-fi chill beats soundtrack ebbs into your ears and I'd recommend playing with headphones for the purest experience reactively morphing and evolving as you move through the particle types.

You play as a ball of light that can connect and collect different particles. Some look like feathers or leaves, others like fish, but most are not unlike that of your own playable glowbug. Gathering up each of these different species will cause your screen to explode with colour. Part of the process, though, is finding out how the different particles interact.

Some don't like to be touched, for example, and will follow you but never directly interact, instead choosing to swarm around your dot like a swarm of bees. Others will happily mingle together with you, and other nearby particles, creating a blanket of colour that pulsates across the screen like a shoal of fish in the sunlight. Often you'll find them wanting to take flight, leading you from point to point instead of following behind, creating rivers of bioluminescent energy that you can ride to discover more about this strange yet beautiful landscape.

(Image credit: Kunabi Brothers)

Puzzle elements slowly seep their way in, too. In one level, particles are trapped inside a gelatinous blob, and you must force your own orb through its centre with enough force to release the captives. It's all simple enough to feel satisfying without taxing your brain in the way other mobile games might, which is exactly what Kunabi Brother is aiming for.

Lifelike is about absorption and immersion in its purest form. There's no real story here, just the immensity of synesthesia: beautiful calm beats that combine with the movement and tinctures of the particles. It's a sight to behold, and the kind of calm we should all be clutching to our chests to protect right now. It'll be joining the Apple Arcade roster very soon, so look out for it on a mobile or tablet device near you in the coming weeks.

Until you can play Lifelike for yourself, why not check out our pick of thebest Apple Arcade gamesright now?

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Turn off the news and play Lifelike, Apple Arcade's latest dose of mobile meditation - GamesRadar

Games often struggle when dealing with grief, and this is especially true for bombastic shooters. The oft-memed press F to pay respects moment from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a prime example of this, because when the rest of your game is built around the generally limited verbs of shoot, throw grenade, melee attack, it can be hard to involve the player in moments of emotional depth in satisfying ways. Because of this, many shooters tend to avoid this subject matter altogether. This lineage is why one of the weekly quests in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, involving the player helping an NPC work through the grief of losing people close to her , has been a surprisingly pleasant balm to what is, on average, a more hamfisted approach.

---- Spoilers for Shadowkeeps Campaign and Post-Campaign Quests----

Shadowkeeps campaign begins with Eris Morn, an ex-guardian whose tragic backstory and constant black tears have earned her the title of Destinys Resident Goth (sorry, Peter Stormare) while exploring the depths of the Moon. Eris has a long history with the moon; her and a fireteam of five companions were the first to venture into the depths of the Hellmouth, but Eris was the only one to escape alive. She found a Pyramid ship, an ancient enemy that has been teased as being Destinys mysterious Darkness, the often mentioned but never portrayed evil that caused human society to collapse. The Darkness are the reason there are abandoned outposts on just about every inner planet of our solar system, and the only reason we werent completely wiped out is because the Traveler somehow managed to...fend them off? The Darkness has always been framed as a mysterious entity, a past trauma repressed by the collective psyche of humanity in an effort to focus on rebuilding.

Screenshot courtesy of Bungie

But now, that threat is back, and its using the past as a weapon. Throughout the Shadowkeep campaign, youre tasked with taking what the game calls Nightmare Hunts, where you track down and kill physical manifestations of past enemies created by the Pyramid ship.

We even get enemies from as far back as Destiny 1, with a specific mission recreating the boss encounter from the Crotas End raid. These hunts are pretty fun missions, but the weight theyre meant to carry fell flat for me. Id already killed Crota a million times, and the reference was neat, but it didnt feel like I was being haunted by my past. And for players that began playing with Destiny 2, I can only imagine their confusion at the encounter of a boss theyve never met being talked up as part of the collective pain that the Pyramid ship is taking advantage of.

Luckily, the storys focus becomes less about you being haunted, and more about Eris and her past. As the players go on these hunts, the ship sends phantoms of Eris old fireteam to haunt her. As you complete missions and quests, new ghosts continue to appear. She attempts to ignore them, but you can tell through her demeanor that the stress continues to build. Even when offered help from Ikora Rey, the only member of the Vanguard she considers a friend, Eris brushes it aside, replying that we have work to do, while gesturing to the player.

Screenshot courtesy of the author.

This piling of responsibility, ignoring stress, and then ignoring help is an all-too-familiar cycle, one many folks will be familiar with well outside of Destiny. Even though it feels like depression and therapy are in the process of being destigmatized, theres still a lot of work to do before its widely accepted. Ive personally seen the effects of that stigma, close friends that once refused to go to therapy for fear of being weird. Too many people still fall into the trap of thinking they dont need help and can pull through on their own, and sometimes that means throwing themselves headfirst into work. Eris typifies this dangerous cycle, never stopping to take stock of her own well being as she continues to help the player with their mission while the Pyramid ship continues to haunt her.

Ikoras response to being brushed off is also feels typical of people unequipped with responding to friends with depression. Instead of sticking around and trying to talk to her friend, she sends Vanguard robots to stand watch and protect her at her outpost on the Moon, an area shes already warded enemies from entering. It all proves to be an unnecessary gesture that misses the forest for the trees. When the forest is a manifestation of Eriss old fireteam that follows her everywhere, you have to wonder why Ikora thought Robots With Guns would help at all.

Screenshot courtesy of the author. The first weekly memory quest.

After the campaign ends, youre sent on a quest to find an old trinket from one of Eris fireteam members. As you fight enemies and explore the Moon, you find pieces of an old necklace that you begin to string back together. Eventually, through completing a series of combat objectives, youre able to recreate the necklace and bring it back to Eris. She tells you about that fireteam member, how they joined her and what they were like. She works through her grief in front of you, and then, only then, is that phantom finally dispersed. Its a touching moment in a game made up of mostly combat and people talking in your ear.

There has been a new quest to help Eris each week since the launch of Shadowkeep, each dealing with the memory of a different member of her fireteam.The fact that theyre weekly quests not only works within Destinys weekly reset schedule, but also motions towards the fact that facing trauma and grief takes time. Theres no easy and quick way through, its an ongoing process.

This is by no means the best depiction of working through grief in games, but for a game whos verbs are all combat-focused, Shadowkeep has managed to make such moments land with a tenderness and weight you dont normally expect, especially so from a game whose main player motivation can be making the numbers go up.

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One of the Best Quests in 'Destiny 2' Is an Unexpected Meditation on Grief - Waypoint

Podcasts are a great way to listen to health experts on the go.

When it comes to health and wellness information, there's no shortage of content, thanks to social media, websites and news these days. And even though all of the information can seem a bit overwhelming, the good news is you don't have to read it all to stay in the know.

Podcasts, one of the most popular media platforms of the moment, let you listen to the top experts and thought leaders in the wellness industry whether you're taking your dog for a walk, driving to work or hitting the treadmill at the gym. And no matter what topic you're interested in or want to learn more about, chances are there's a podcast about whatever subject you're into.

The 10 podcasts listed below are currently the most popular podcasts in the Health and Fitness category on Apple Podcasts. They cover a full range of topics from healthy eating and nutrition, meditation and happiness. Plus, they're hosted by some of the most interesting, thought-provoking figures of the moment, such as Jay Shetty (a monk turned motivational speaker) and Dave Asprey (founder of Bulletproof coffee and a leader in the "biohacking" craze).

Read more:The best-sounding true wireless headphones of 2019

This list is ranked in order of most popular according to Apple Podcast's Top Charts in the Health & Fitness category.

On Purposehost Jay Shetty is a former monk turned inspirational speaker. Shetty is often tapped to lead inspirational talks at companies such as Facebook and Google, and has coached top executives on social media strategy. In the podcast, he distills the knowledge and lessons he learned as a monk into actionable advice you can incorporate into your everyday life. Expect interviews with big-name celebrities such as Khloe Kardashian and executives such as Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph in this top-rated podcast.

Each episode in the Life Kitpodcast from NPR is essentially a how-to guide for different challenges or experiences in life. Topics range from how to sleep better to how to learn to love exercise (or at least like it). The podcast doesn't just cover health and fitness -- it also includes episode guides on finances, family issues and more.

Remember those bedtime stories you used to ask your mom or dad to tell you when you couldn't sleep as a kid? This podcast aims to be just that, except for adults. The Sleep With Mepodcast episodes are bedtime stories designed to get more boring as you listen to help you go to sleep.

Dr. Mark Hyman is a leader in the functional medicine space, which makes it not so surprising that his podcast is all about how food and the food industry can make a difference when it comes to health and chronic disease. If you're interested in food, food policy and functional nutrition (i.e. food as medicine) you'll be into this podcast.

Gretchen Rubin is a happiness and habits experts, and the bestselling author of The Happiness Project. If you like Rubin's books, you'll enjoy listening to her upbeat podcast with straightforward tips for cultivating happiness and improving daily habits.

If you've ever been skeptical about the benefits of meditation, but are curious about learning more, Dan Harris's podcast is a good place to start. Harris is known as the news anchor who had a panic attack live on Good Morning America, which is what led him to try meditation, even though he doubted that it would help him.

He eventually found so much success with it he wrote the bestselling book 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works. His podcastcovers various topics related to meditation, ambition and enlightenment.

The Rise Together Podcastis hosted by motivational speaker and best-selling author Rachel Hollis and her husband Dave Hollis. While not your typical "wellness" podcast, the couple discusses everything from relationships and sex to parenting and finances.

Tech entrepreneur Dave Asprey (best known for founding Bulletproof coffee) made it his personal mission in life to find ways to level up your body, mind and life. Through his own personal experiments, he's traveled the world and discovered some of the most interesting ways that people can do everything better.

His most notable takeaways are to do with his brand, but you can also hear more about his experiences in his podcast, where he interviews prominent doctors and leaders in the wellness space.

Interested in how famous people achieved high levels of success? Tune into The School of Greatness, hosted by Lewis Howes. Howes is a former pro athlete turned best-selling author, speaker and business coach. Howes' podcast covers all things related to personal development and features interviews with prominent executives, celebrities, and other leaders on the self-help space. Expect a good amount of content related to health, nutrition and fitness as well.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop editor Elise Loehnen take turns hosting episodes of the Goop Podcast, which covers topics related to holistic and alternative medicine, fitness, nutrition, spirituality and more. Expect interviews with leaders and interesting figures in the wellness space, including doctors, CEOs and spiritual leaders featured in Goop, Paltrow's newsletter and site.

Read more: Podcast mobile app Pocket Casts is free now

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The 10 best health and fitness podcasts, according to listeners - CNET